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Barbara Buono on Jobs |
Barbara is committed to creating the chance to get an affordable education and a good job and to go as far as your talents take you. That's why she introduced legislation to make college costs more transparent and fought to keep higher education costs down. She's championed efforts to hold down property taxes by asking the wealthiest to pay their fair share, and she's cut taxes for small businesses to spur new hiring.
Barbara's leading the fight to increase NJ's minimum wage and ensure it keeps up with inflation. And as governor, she'll restore funding for the Earned Income Tax Credit that was slashed by Governor Christie, helping more hardworking New Jerseyans support their families and move from welfare to work.
There are differing opinions about how unemployment should be measured but based strictly on the unemployment rate, Buono's three points appear to be valid. The national unemployment rate lingered at 9% throughout 2011. By February of this year it had fallen to 7.7%. So Buono is right that the US unemployment rate has declined steadily. Next, is NJ's unemployment rate nearly 2% higher than the nation's? It is, but only since about July 2012. Finally, how does NJ's unemployment rate stack up against CT and NY? BLS data shows that NJ's unemployment rate was at least 1% higher than CT's rate throughout 2012.
Our ruling: Given the varying degrees of accuracy, as well as the state measuring unemployment differently from the BLS, we rate Buono's claim "Mostly True."
